It seems like it just started yesterday, but the Illinois football team ended their 2022 regular season with a win over Northwestern.
After dropping the last three contests, the Illini came out with a fire about them against the Wildcats. Reggie Love III got into the end zone first, and then the Illinois defense finished Northwestern off with back-to-back touchdowns. Illinois would cruise to an easy win, 41-3.
Here are five observations from the Illinois football win over Northwestern.
1. Illinois’ secondary is insane
Coming into the Northwestern game, the Illini had been on a bit of a rough patch. We dropped three-straight games, and this made some people question the program.
There was always one thing that never wavered throughout the season, though. The Illinois secondary has been rock-solid this year, and it continued Saturday against the Wildcats.
Northwestern’s quarterbacks struggled against Illinois’ secondary, to say the least. They were a combined 17-of-31 for 167 yards, zero touchdowns, and five interceptions. That is not a typo. Five interceptions.
The Illini secondary was all over the field making plays. Devon Witherspoon helped stop a few drives by the Wildcats that could have resulted in points. He ended the game with two interceptions and returned them for a combined 57 yards.
Sydney Brown had two interceptions as well. One of his picks was an impressive shoelace grab that I don’t think any of our wide receivers could have made. Brown took one of his interceptions back for a touchdown, and he had a fumble return for a touchdown. He beat Northwestern by himself, 14-3.
I love what Illinois has in their secondary. It is sad that we only get to see them one more game. Brown is going to graduate, and Witherspoon is undoubtedly going to the NFL. Let’s enjoy watching them one last time with the Orange and Blue.
2. Future at running back is bright
Illinois fans just watched one of the best seasons a running back has had in program history. Chase Brown is inching closer and closer to the single-season rushing record that was set by Mikel Leshoure.
On Sunday, Brown had a chance to beat Leshoure’s 1,697-yard record, but due to injuries, he fell just short with 19 carries for 61 yards and a touchdown. Brown now sits at 1,643 yards for the season, so he only needs 55 yards in the bowl game to break the record.
While that record is amazing to watch and it may never be broken again, it was also fun on Saturday to see the future of the Illinois running back position in action.
Reggie Love III finally got his shine. With Brown on the mend for a minute, Love saw action and thrived. He would carry the ball well, finishing with 11 carries for 85 yards and a touchdown. Brown was the main reason Illinois was able to jump ahead of Northwestern.
The future of the Illinois running back position is so bright. Technically, Brown could return to Champaign as he is only a junior, but there is no question he is heading to the NFL. That leaves Love, who is going to be a junior, as the starting running back in 2023.
Josh McCray is right there with Love. He was the No. 2 running back in 2021, but injuries have hampered his career. Look for a healthy McCray to have a big timeshare at running back next season. If he didn’t take a medical redshirt this season, he should be a junior in 2023 as well.
Beyond those two monsters, I am intrigued by Jordan Anderson. He was a freshman this season who, most likely, took a redshirt. This dude is 6-foot-4, 240-pounds, and his high school tape is fun to watch. He could end up being like Derrick Henry for the Illini.
Let’s not forget, Illinois also had a four-star running back in Kaden Feagin coming in from the class of 2023. He is going to contend for snaps from day one. I could go on and on, but you get the point. Illinois is developing quite the running back room, and it is exciting.
3. We have so many receiving weapons returning in 2023
Tommy DeVito was a breath of fresh air this season. Illinois football fans haven’t seen a quarterback of his caliber in a long time. One of the great things DeVito brought with him was the ability to actually get the ball to our wide receivers.
On Saturday against Northwestern, DeVito didn’t have a great game, but he still had the ability to spread the wealth. He connected with six different pass catches en route to 136 yards through the air.
Pat Bryan, Casey Washington, and Isaiah Williams each had three receptions. Chase Brown, Luke Ford, and Hank Beatty each had one reception on the day. It is great to see these guys catching passes because a lot of them are going to be returning in 2023.
Let’s go down the list of Illinois’ leading receivers for 2022. Williams leads the team with 72 receptions. He is only going to be a junior next year. Bryant is second on the team with 34 receptions. He too is going to be a junior.
Brian Hightower (37 receptions), Brown (27), Washington (24), Tip Reiman (17), and Ford (10) round out the Illinois players who have at least 10 receptions on the season. Brown is probably going to the NFL and Ford is listed as a senior. But Hightower and Washington will be seniors in 2023 and Reiman will be a junior.
With that being said, five out of the top six players in receptions will likely be returning to the Illinois roster in 2023. That is a lot of firepower for whoever steps into the quarterback vacancy left by DeVito.
4. The Illini are starting to dominate the Northwestern series
Over the past decade, the Illinois football program has been in a rough spot. The quarterback situation was always a mess, and we just weren’t winning games consistently.
I think the thing that showed Illinois’ struggles the most was the rivalry game against Northwestern. The amount of losing was a microcosm of what the Illini were going through as a program.
From 2015 through 2020, the Illini were 0-6 against the Wildcats with only one of those games being a loss by fewer than 10 points. Northwestern averaged beating us by 18.5 points per game during that stretch.
You could actually expand the struggles against Northwestern even further. From 2012 through 2020, Illinois had only beaten the Wildcats one time. That is actually an embarrassing number considering how bad of a program Northwestern has been in the history of college football.
Thankfully, there is a new regime in town. Bret Bielema took over the Illinois football program, and losing to Northwestern has stopped. Illinois had one win in nine seasons against the Wildcats. In Bielema’s first two years, he has two wins against Northwestern.
In the two wins, the Bielema-led Illini have demolished the Wildcats. The combined score of the two games is 88-17. We are beating them by an average of 35.5 points per game. The 38-point drubbing of Northwestern on Saturday was the fifth-biggest win Illinois has ever had in the rivalry.
This is how things are supposed to be. Everything is right in the world when Illinois is dominating Northwestern. Look for this to be a trend moving forward as well. I don’t see the domination stopping anytime soon.
5. Great way to end a great season
Just two years ago, it was hard to see Illinois football being a team that could win more than five or six games in a season. This program was in a bad spot, and we couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.
In steps Bret Bielema. I will be the first to admit that I’ve never been a huge Bielema fan. When he was hired, I loved his coaching pedigree but didn’t really care for him as a coach of my program. But I gave him a chance and boy howdy, Bielema has passed with flying colors.
Bielema, self admittedly, made some mistakes in the past. He is a cool, calm, and collected customer today with a new lease on life. He sharpened his coaching abilities with a couple of NFL teams, and then returned to the college ranks with the Illini. This move has benefited both parties, as he helped resurrect the Orange and Blue.
After a 1-1 start that saw a tough loss to Indiana, Illinois went on a tear. We won six games in a row and put the program directly into the national spotlight, which is something we haven’t seen in over 10 years.
At one time this season, Illinois was looked at as a dark horse for the College Football Playoff. We were ranked No. 16 in the country. We also had a contender for the Heisman Trophy in Chase Brown.
But three-straight rough losses ended all of that talk. Illinois came back down to earth a little bit, although, we about knocked off Michigan, who just throttled Ohio State on Saturday.
Sitting at 7-4, the Illini heading into the final game of the 2022 regular season. A loss to Northwestern would have made a lot of Illinois fans worried about the future, but that didn’t happen. Illinois demolished the Wildcats, 41-3.
This win moved the Orange and Blue to 8-4 overall and 5-4 in Big Ten play. Overall, this was a great year. In the future, I don’t want to say that, though. I want 8-4 to be the norm. But for a program that hasn’t seen eight wins in the regular season since 2007, this was a season to remember. The sky is the limit for this program.